1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flat panel display apparatus having a screen, and more particularly, to a flat panel display apparatus which can stop a tilt operation of a flat panel display apparatus when an excessive force is provided to a display unit which includes a flat panel display screen for viewing images in order to control a visual angle of the display unit forwardly or backwardly. Movement of the display unit so as to tilt forwardly or backwardly, or swivel to the left or right is enabled by a hinge unit which is connected between the display unit and a stand unit which supports the display unit on a given surface.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a flat panel display apparatus includes a hinge device for controlling a visual angle of a display unit in a left or right swivel direction (about an axis perpendicular to a surface on which the flat panel display apparatus rests), and forward or backward tilt direction (about an axis parallel to the surface on which the flat panel display apparatus rests). The hinge device is connected between the display unit, having a flat panel, and a stand unit performing the function of supporting the display unit.
The hinge device performs a tilting operation to control a visual angle by enabling movement of the display unit forward or backward, and enables a swivelling operation of the display unit to the left or right.
Also, the hinge device includes a pair of stoppers to be operated when the display unit is moved at least a certain predetermined angle from a standard position. There are two kinds of stoppers, one kind stops tilting and the other kind stops swivelling, and two of each kind are equipped inside the hinge device.
However, the stoppers are formed so as to have a small size due to the narrowness of the internal structure and equipment space, etc., of the hinge device, and therefore, they do not have that strong durability.
Also, the operations of tilting and swivelling of the display unit are accomplished by a manual activity of a user. However, sometimes an excessive force in the tilting direction is applied to the display unit when swivelling the display unit left or right, and the tilt stoppers, which are used to prevent excessive tilt of the display unit, receive the excessive force due to this. In this case, it is difficult to support the display unit in the tilt directions with just the stoppers inside of the hinge device.
That is, if the display unit is moved slowly during the tilting operation, no serious problem arises, but if the display unit is operated with an excessive force, the stoppers inside the hinge device receive the excessive force. As a result, some problems may arise, for example, an obstacle to movement of the display unit, deterioration in the reliance of the flat panel display device, and weakened representative competitive power may result.